Has anyone here read/are familiar with "The Histories" by Herodotus? (ancient, Egypt)

[mackinac81]

I'd be surprised if this gets many bites, but I'll cast my line anyway

This morning I just finished reading "The Histories" by Herodotus. It was the first ever narrative history of the West, and it's a sweeping account of the history and Geography of the known world from Ethiopia, to North Africa, to India and Russia.

What surprised me was that the bulk of our info about the Greco-Persian wars came from this book. You know....Thermopylae, King Leonidas, Xerxes and Themistocles. It was a long read, and I had to have Wikipedia handy, but a facinating account of the known world then and incredible detail about the greeks. I'm glad I read it all the way through.

Has anyone read this book, or is familiar with the stuff described in it? What were your thoughts?

[Irishtom29]

Herodotus is great, it's so relaxed and conversational, as though he were sitting right with you telling you his stories. The guy just sweeps away the 2500 years between us.

[mackinac81]

Originally posted by Irishtom29
Herodotus is great, it's so relaxed and conversational, as though he were sitting right with you telling you his stories. The guy just sweeps away the 2500 years between us.

Isn't he though? I felt like I was actually traveling to these places--it was incredible. Plus I'm a sucker for anecdotes. Do you have any favorite stories from the book? I know one of mine was about Croesus' misreading of the Oracle when he went against the Persians. And the whole battle of Thermopylae was cool too. I came out of it really liking King Leonidas.

[cpg35223]

Herodotus is a bit of a gossip. If you're really looking for the true first modern history, then I think Thucididyes is a better choice.

[mackinac81]

Originally posted by cpg35223
Herodotus is a bit of a gossip. If you're really looking for the true first modern history, then I think Thucididyes is a better choice.

I will grant you that. All of his "The Egyptians say this...The Scythians say this" definitely didn't lend itself to scholarly history the way we know it today. But they did make for interesting stories, and for being the first narrative history, he didn't do a bad job IMO. (You never get it right the first time) Some of the things he said had me thinking, "yeah...right" But I trusted it for the most part. It helped that my edition had a lot of disclaimers, so I could better tell what was true and what was exaggeration.

Actually I just bought "The History of the Pelopennesian War" the other day. I'll resume that when I'm done with Tom Sawyer. I needed a break from the Ancient world for a while, but I'm looking forward to it really soon.